


It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Synthesis

by mousapelli



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Christmas, Gen, Hollow Bastion | Radiant Garden, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:55:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29188914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mousapelli/pseuds/mousapelli
Summary: Riku and Ventus set out to collect new ornaments for Merlin's tree, Namine puts her new wand to good use, and Lea ends up with a jaunty hat. Just another traditional Mid-Winter holiday in Radiant Garden!
Relationships: Lea & Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Naminé & Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Riku & Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Synthesis

**Author's Note:**

> I got accepted into the 2020 KH Holiday zine and this was my fic! I really enjoyed writing about the weird little group of Riku, Ventus, Lea, and Namine hanging out. 
> 
> Also the little flying-type heartless that are named after music things are my very favorites, so I invented a holiday one, the Peppermint Carol.

If Riku had known the unusual Heartless who had taken over Radiant Garden’s fountains would be this much of a nuisance, he would have brought more backup along. Ventus was an excellent Keyblade wielder and a good friend, but he did tend to get…distracted. 

“They look so festive!” Ventus was saying as Riku laid Braveheart across his forearm to sight a Dark Firaga shot. Ventus looked over his shoulder at Riku. “We could leave just a couple, right? They weren’t even bothering anyone here, just freezing the fountains a little.”

The red-and-white-striped flying Heartless were freezing the fountains more than a little, some with Ice spells and others with Stop. Using the usual naming scheme of the other magic flying Heartless, Lea had named these Peppermint Carols when he’d run into a cluster of them that morning. He’d also threatened to steal one of their little hats with their jaunty sprigs of mistletoe. 

Riku and Ventus had taken out most of the cluster of Heartless already, but the last two Carols were whirring around above them, annoyingly out of reach. 

“Dark Firaga!” Riku nodded in satisfaction as his fireball hit its target, popping the Carol in a shower of ice crystals like a snowball smacking into a wall. “We can’t leave a bunch of these guys flying around, unless you want Radiant Garden citizens frozen all over here like ice sculptures.”

“Aw, I guess not,” Ventus agreed. He turned back towards the fountains, expression wistful. “But the fountains look so pretty like—”

“Ven! Watch out!” Riku interrupted as the last Carol zipped around behind Ventus, out of his line of sight, and fired a melon-sized Blizzara right at him. Only a quick Shadow Slide got Riku in front of Ventus to block it, but he wasn’t quite fast enough — the impact of the ice chunk against his shoulder froze him solid, hand still outstretched. “ _Nnngh_.”

“Yikes!” Ventus yelped, hopping back. “Ok, festive or not, that’s it! Fire Raid!” 

The Heartless dodged out of the way of Wayward Wind’s arc up, but not its boomerang arc back down, stunning it and sending it tumbling to the ground. Ventus caught his keyblade with a satisfying _thwack_ against his palm, and brought it down hard on the Carol’s head, disintegrating it like all its friends. 

“We did it!” Ventus said cheerfully. He reached up to slap his palm against Riku’s frozen hand as if he were holding it up for a high five. “Go us!” 

Riku grunted through stuck-together teeth, giving Ventus the dirtiest look he possibly could when he could only move his eyeballs. 

Once Riku had thawed out, the two of them headed back towards Merlin’s house where the Restoration Committee had been decorating all day. The route back took them through town, Ventus and Riku admiring Radiant Garden’s holiday decorations of evergreen boughs, colorful ribbons, and string lights. The area around the town’s market square was especially pretty, stalls for food and gifts spilling out from the square and into the side streets. 

“I think that’s Lea!” Ventus said suddenly, and sure enough, further down the street Riku caught sight of bright red hair spikes sticking out in the sea of holiday shoppers. At Ventus’s shout, Lea looked up and waved back. “Looks like Naminé’s with him, too.”

Naminé and Lea together looked like a low-budget holiday card, Riku laughed to himself as the two pairs met in the middle of the sidewalk; Naminé was wearing an oversized blue sweater with snowmen frolicking all over, while Lea had a handmade scarf of hilarious length and obnoxious greenness. A hat from a Peppermint Carol would not have looked out of place. 

“Fancy running into you two here,” Lea said. He held up his hand for a high five, then lifted it too high for Ventus to reach, making him groan. “Ah, too slow. All done vanquishing the Peppermint Carols?”

“Lea, quit it!” Ventus kicked off the ground, air-stepping to smack his palm against Lea’s. “Yeah, they were no problem! Well, Riku got frozen a little bit.”

“Did he? You ok there, boss?” Lea asked, eyeing the way Riku was still rubbing his arms. “You look a little blue around the gills. Maybe you should ask Santa for a hoodie with sleeves this year.”

“I’m fine,” Riku said, rolling his eyes. 

“We got a whole bunch of weird synthesis items off them,” Ventus continued. “Wanna see?” 

“Yes, please!” Naminé said, looking with interest as Ventus dug a handful of shards and stones out of his pocket. 

“What are you two doing out here?” Riku asked. “I thought Aerith had everyone on decorating duty.”

“Little hiccup,” Lea answered, rubbing the back of his head. “Merlin kept saying the tree wasn’t straight, and the tree got insulted and started throwing the ornaments at us. Cid got it lassoed up with some string lights eventually, but most of the ornaments had a fragmentary passage.”

“We were hoping we could get some new ones at the market,” Naminé added. “But it’s getting late so a lot of the vendors have closed up already. It’s so weird that it gets dark earlier every day here!” She held up a crescent-shaped shard that glittered iridescent red and white, just like the Carols. “Ooh, I like this one.”

“You can pick some up tomorrow, right?” Riku asked.

“We were hoping to have it done tonight,” Naminé said. “Xion and Roxas are coming tomorrow morning for breakfast and the market and they’ve never seen a Midwinter tree before.”

“Not much we can do about it now, I’m afraid,” Lea said. “Unless one of you happens to have a bunch of ornaments in your pockets.”

“Oh! And these weird blue ones…” Ventus trailed off as he realized everyone was watching him digging around in his pocket. “What?” 

“Oh!” Naminé clapped her hands, catching on. “Ven, you’re a genius!”

“He’s a what?” Lea asked. Riku elbowed him hard. “Oof!”

“The synthesis pieces look a lot like glass ornaments,” Naminé said, holding up the one she was holding to let it catch the light. “You’ve already got red and blue, and I bet we could find other colors pretty easily, with the four of us.” She looked expectantly at Lea. “Lea was just telling me he knows where all the Heartless in Radiant Garden nest. Right?”

“Er, something like that,” Lea muttered, rubbing the back of his head. Riku and Ventus shared an amused glance at Lea’s bragging backfiring. “Last I checked there were still a bunch of Bookmasters down by the Bastion that’ll drop energy crystals. Those are purple. Usually some Green Requiems are hanging around being annoying, too.”

“Sounds like a good place to start,” Riku agreed. “Naminé, want us to walk you back to Merlin’s first?”

“Heck no!” Naminé reached into her sweater sleeve and pulled out a slender white wand like a magic trick. “Fairy Godmother hasn’t been teaching me just to defend myself against pumpkins, you know!” 

Sure enough, down in the Bastion a cluster of Bookmasters were drifting about, fluttering their pages threateningly, along with a squad of Armored Knights and Green Requiems. The four of them crouched down behind a low wall, out of sight, taking stock of the situation. 

“Bet you 500 Munny I can take out more than you,” Ventus challenged Lea. 

“Happy to take your money, pal,” Lea answered. “Riku, you want in?”

Riku hopped over the wall without answering, Braveheart appearing in his hand as he charged the first startled Bookmaster.

“Ugh, I forgot everybody from Destiny Islands is a cheater,” Lea complained, standing up to follow. “Let’s go!”

“Come on!” Naminé called, grabbing Ventus’s hand and yanking him along after Lea. 

Naminé made a great support, casting Stop or Sleep on various Heartless so that the others could knock them out of the air, and quick enough to take out a few Bookmasters herself with well-timed Reflects. Lea was not so lucky, his height making his metal keyblade a lightning rod when Ventus ducked behind him. 

“Ow!” Lea bellowed, keyblade flickering for a second. “That’s cheating, shrimp!” 

“Heal!” Naminé called, slapping Lea’s back on the way by. 

Lea blinked in surprise as he was wreathed in green, then grinned. “Thanks! Ven, get back here!” 

In the end, Riku had a respectable seventeen to Lea’s fifteen Heartless downed, but Ventus edged them both out with a score of eighteen. 

“I call shenanigans,” Lea complained. “You used me as a human shield!” 

“Do you think this is enough?” Riku asked Naminé, examining their pile of dropped synthesis items and ignoring Lea and Ventus. Aside from the purple Energy Crystals were some bright green Bright Shards and yellow Energy Gems.

“I think so.” Naminé brushed her hand through the pile shards, added to their original blue and red pieces. “We just need one more thing for the top of the tree. Something bigger.”

“And star-shaped, right?” Riku asked; he’d seen the original that morning, colored glass wrapped in silver wire. Naminé nodded. “What about a Lightning Crystal? There’s a ton of mechanical Heartless in Radiant Garden, something must drop them.”

“Devastators,” Lea joined the conversation. Ventus and Naminé both tilted their heads. “The purple ones that look like robot jellyfish. Used to be some hanging around outside the lab, but Dilan and Ienzo wiped them out. I haven’t seen one in a while.”

“These guys?” Ventus held up his Gummiphone, his Adversaries app open. A little animation of a Devastator waved its legs threateningly. Lea nodded.

“Oh! I’ve seen those in the Cave of Remembrance,” Naminé said. The other three stared at her blankly. “It’s on the way back, just under the castle. I’ll show you!”

“Give us a sec,” Lea said as Riku and Ventus turned to follow Naminé. “We’ve gotta wait for Ven’s Mini spell to wear off.”

“Ho ho ho,” Ventus whacked Lea in the arm on the way by. “I hope you asked Santa for some new jokes.”

It was getting dark as Naminé led them back to the Postern of the castle, the temperature dropping. Riku rubbed his arms and thought that Lea had been right about hoodies with sleeves after all; even Naminé’s snowman sweater was starting to look more appealing. To everyone’s surprise, Naminé showed them a fissure in the castle’s foundation, with a metal ladder leading down into the dark. It was a little spooky at first, but once they were inside, the cave’s crystal walls glowed softly in purples and blues. 

“How did you know about this place?” Riku asked as they picked their way along a ledge, trying not to draw the attention of the Heartless milling around on the cavern’s floor. 

“I am a memory witch after all,” Naminé said, winking. Riku raised an eyebrow and she laughed. “Ienzo comes down here to collect Remembrance pieces for his research. This is the only good place to find them.”

“Ouch!” Lea yelped behind them, whacking his head on the low ceiling. 

“Bet a Mini spell’s looking useful right now, huh?” Ventus teased. Naminé shushed both of them. 

“There,” Riku said, spotting a Devastator at last. It was idling around a niche in the cave wall, along with another group of Bookmasters. 

“Ugh, Bookmasters again?” Lea asked, kneeling down on the ledge next to Riku and Naminé to get a better look. “Can’t they have any other hobby? Why isn’t it ever Knittingcasters or Bakingcasters?”

“Looks like we only have one chance for a Lightning Crystal,” Riku said. “Who’s got the luckiest item drop boost? I’ve got a Three Stars ring but it’s iffy on its own.”

“I’ve got Lucky Strike on my Blitz attack,” Ventus offered. “Lemme borrow your ring, doubling up should be enough.” Riku tossed his ring over to Ventus, who had to stick it on his thumb to have any chance of not losing it. “Somebody will have to distract the Devastator, though. I doubt it’ll just let me run up and whack it head-on.”

“Naminé and I can worry about the Bookcasters,” Riku said. “You’ve got the Reflect timing down for them now, right?”

“Right!” Naminé replied proudly. “So that leaves…”

Everyone turned to look at Lea. Lea rolled his eyes. 

“Fine, Operation Human Shield it is,” he said. “What would you guys do without me?”

“Thanks, Lea,” Ventus said with a cheerful smile. 

“Save it, short stuff.” Lea gave Ventus’s shoulder a shove. “Glide over there to that ledge and drop down behind it when you have a clean shot.”

“Go on three,” Riku said once Ventus was in position and had given them the thumbs-up. He watched for the nearest Bookcaster to turn away from them before counting down. “One…two…three!” 

The surprise attack worked well enough; Riku dropped directly on top of one Bookcaster while Naminé’s Reflect bubble bounced the second and third one’s spells back at them, stunning them. Lea charged up the center, hollering insults at the Devastator until it swiveled towards him, antenna perking up. 

“Over here!” Lea called, skidding to a stop just out of range of its legs. “Purple is passé! And your hat’s stupid!” The Devastator fired a blast from its proto cannon, leaving a scorch mark just to Lea’s right. “Oh yeah? Two can play that game! Thunder!”

Two apparently could play that game, since the Devastator put up a barrier of its own, Reflecting Lea’s lightning right back at him. It cast a few electron homing shots for good measure, Lea struggling to bat them away in between getting zapped. 

“Oh, come on!” Lea snapped, hair standing on end. “Ow! Anytime, Ven! No rush!” 

“On it!” Ventus answered. Leaping off the ledge, Ventus came down hard on the Devastator’s helmet with a _clang_. Before it could shake him off, he Blitz attacked, knocking it flat to the ground, and then finished it off with one more hit. The Devastator shattered into nothing, dropping Ventus to the Cavern floor although with a bright yellow synthesis crystal. Ventus scooped it up. “Got it! One perfect Lightning Crystal.”

“Great job,” Riku said, he and Naminé coming to see, Bookcasters vanquished. He squeezed Ventus’s shoulder as he leaned in for a better look at the crystal. 

“No sweat!” Ventus said, pleased as punch. 

“Absolutely none,” Lea coughed, jacket still smoking a little. “Let’s get out of here before anything else decides to use me as target practice.”

The next morning at Merlin’s house, Riku was sitting at a hastily-conjured table and drinking coffee peacefully when Lea stumbled into the room. He looked somewhat revived from Aerith’s Cure spell and a night’s sleep, but all the hair that wasn’t captured by his lazy bun was still sticking straight up. Hiding a smirk behind his coffee cup, Riku pushed a second mug over to Lea. 

“Thanks, boss,” Lea said, plunking himself down at the table. “Ven’s still out cold.” As he poured his own coffee, he nodded at the tree. “We did a pretty good job.”

“We did,” Riku agreed, looking over the synthesis pieces glittering cheerfully in the glow of the tree’s string lights. Aerith and Tifa had found colored ribbon to tie them to the branches, the Lightning Crystal affixed proudly to the top with copper wire. The tree was still struggling a little, but Leon had bound it tightly enough in the lights that it just made the synthesis ornaments tinkle against each other gently, like wind chimes. 

The peace of the morning was broken by Roxas and Xion bursting in the door, pink-cheeked and over-excited. 

“We’re here!” Roxas yelled. “You guys would not believe the weird stripy Heartless outside. They had these little hats!” He held up one of the Peppermint Carol’s hats, making Lea’s eyes light up. 

“Toss it over!” he exclaimed. Roxas obligingly lobbed it to him, and Lea immediately sat it on his head at a jaunty angle. “See, that’s why Roxas is my best friend.”

“Hmm,” Riku said. 

“Oh wow!” Xion said, stopping in her tracks at the sight of the tree. “That’s so pretty! Naminé said Midwinter trees were amazing, but I wasn’t imagining anything like this.”

“Of course they are,” Lea insisted smugly. “Radiant Garden decorations are the best. I told you two I’d show you a traditional Radiant Garden holiday, didn’t I?”

“Aren’t those synthesis pieces?” Roxas asked, examining the tree a little more closely. It rustled at him threateningly. “Did the tree just—”

“Completely traditional!” Lea talked over Roxas. “And Riku here only got frozen a little bit.”


End file.
